Tag: travelling by sea

7th term, week 5 🤩

7th term, week 5 🤩

20th to 26th of June 2022

Hello, my dear friends! There we are off again to Loch Aline in Scotland where we will load sand for Ellesmere port. We have fresh food onboard, and fresh water and all is well, except for the watches that are a bit messed up because of the departures and arrivals. As you know, the captain is manoeuvring for departures and arrivals, but also for the locks of course and for the main part in rivers and channels when the pilots are onboard. This makes it a little bit like a « 10 on and 2 off » schedule for him and the rest of the crew is just doubling up some of the hours for the mooring operations and disembarking of the pilots etc.

This is the ship’s life of course, so we do not complain, it is part of the deal, but I was wondering how we would manage if we had to do these voyages constantly. I think we would probably have to swap around a few watches and maybe do 6 on 6 off with a « flying captain » taking over whenever necessary…. as it is also according to the tides, we would schedule our watches according to the high waters in Liverpool bay and in Loch Aline right? that would be funny too…. But for sure I think the voyage between the two places would never be boring as the views in Scotland are amazing. If you have never been there or sailed there I would highly recommend it!

This time in Loch Aline, it went faster because we had a little less to load, but we still had to move around the vessel of course as their conveyor was a fixed one. As we were loading less and starting earlier, we had to make sure that when we would shift forward, there would still be enough water under the bow. Indeed, because it was earlier in the tide table when shifting, there would be less water, and maybe we would have to wait half an hour or so to not beach. Captain H. went to check the drafts and the local water height before shifting to make sure there would not be any problem; and of course, there were no issues there. It was not even 8 in the morning and we knew we would be out by lunchtime. Crazy when you imagine that it seemed that we had just arrived a few hours earlier! Imagine that some vessels have a fixed contract with chartering and sail only from one harbour to another or only three different harbours and that it is also some kind of 6 hours shifts. I think I would find it quite tiring. Nice to do a few times but not all year long I guess…. I do not know. Also, I have not really tried for so long so I would not be able to say. Maybe it would also make me happy because you get into a different routine, and I like routines! 😉

Anyways. Off we were to Ellesmere, and Captain H. stayed with me on the bridge till we had passed the Great race once again. This time we passed it at full speed at 18knots! We were literally flying! We had quite a nice sail to the UK and dropped anchor just at the entrance of the river to Liverpool and further up Ellesmere. We had to wait for a vessel that was still on our berth… and then depending on the tide, we would heave up anchor and head towards the pilot station that was not so far away and more alongside in Ellesmere. That did not take long: 12 hours later we were heaving up the anchor in the early morning and after lunch, the ship was ready for discharge.

Passing the Great Race full speed!
Passing the Great Race full speed!
Passing the Great Race full speed! The view is amazing!
Passing the Great Race full speed! The view is amazing!

Here again, it would not take long before we would sail out again.

These past weeks were the perfect example of the hop on hop off that some vessels can experience.

Ellesmere was a funny place. It was a quay in a narrow channel; three vessels could be alongside at the same time and it seemed that various cargoes would be discharged there: this was quite clear because various grabs for cranes were nicely organized, but also there would be traces of previous cargoes on the quay. I was wondering where; or more precisely in what they would discharge our sand. Well, for your information, when the garb came to the ship, he just discharges it there; there being just on the quay. There would probably be another grab or bobcat to fill in trucks later or to bring it somewhere else? It was sand so not a sensitive cargo for rain.

The vessel was totally discharged by the early night and we had to wait the next morning for the pilot to come on board and for the tide – of course- to sail out….. to Rayness Jetty.

Do you know where Rayness Jetty is? Well literally so close to the anchorage area… Okay, I guess you are right, it is still a couple of miles further. We dropped anchor once again southwest of the windmills and we were going to load directly in the evening that day. Luckily there were no more pilots involved; that was a good thing. 

Pilots are nice, do not get me wrong, but sometimes it feels as if we are constantly waiting on them. This time we could proceed directly to the jetty and then to our next destination.

Arriving to our anchoring place near Rayness jetty
Arriving to our anchoring place near Rayness jetty

All this seemed easy right. Well… the story does not end exactly this way. We got a call from our agent that the vessel ahead of us; the one currently loading had some Main engine trouble they had to fix before departure. This is life in shipping… you plan some times and some dates but you need to keep in mind that there are external factors that can pop around at the least expected time. It is not a problem for us. We are usually quite flexible and we replan accordingly. I mean we also do not always have a choice right?

There is always time for some safety checks and teaching crew about Hydrostatic Release Units!
The crew enjoying a sunny day: perfect weather for painting on deck!

So there we were another night at anchor and in the early morning headed towards the jetty. Rayness Jetty is an interesting place to load. Not for the type of cargo ( it is limestone) not for the scenery (it is just the coast and there is not much to see from the jetty really; although the coast does look very nice and I would really not mind going for a hike there!). What is interesting is the loading operation part: it is very shallow which means that you need to manage the entire loading operation before the tide drops again. And the second interesting fact is that they load the 3500t of stones in approximately 4 hours…. Yep. Over 800 tons an hour yes! When we are in ballast condition; it takes us approximately that time to deballast…. You can see we really need to be fast!

At anchor in front of Rayness Jetty
At anchor in front of Rayness Jetty

Once the loading was done we quickly left the quay to not have any trouble running aground. And finally, we were off to our next sailing days… it was a few days sailing towards our next port of call and we would pass through the channel and through the Kiel channel too. Hopefully, the times through the locks and tides will be kind to our watch system this time. Anyways! See you next week!

xxx

Sophietje

7th term, week 4 🤩

7th term, week 4 🤩

13th to 19th of June 2022.

Hello There! still at sea sailing from Spain (Vilagarcia) to the UK (Birkenhead, in front of Liverpool on the Mersey River). It is just over 3 days sailing from one port to the other, but luckily not a difficult trip as there are no reporting points, no coast and just vessels crossing up coming from the channel and probably heading to Africa or the strait of Gibraltar. We even crossed another Dutch vessel on which one of our previous maroffs is now a chief officer. They were sailing to Jeddah. Our Apprentice S. who was still in touch with him, and who still needs to practice calling on the VHF made contact as they were both on watch and it was good to get news from him.

We could only arrive at our next port of call with high tide and we had to calculate arriving at the pilot station 3 hours before high tide. That meant in the early morning on Tuesday we would be there and be ready for sailing up the river up to Birkenhead where we would pass through an old narrow lock. As I came on watch to the bridge slightly earlier, I got to see Liverpool from the waterside and I thought it looked like a nice place to be. I was really hoping that we would get a bit of time to go ashore in the evening; if the conditions would allow it.

Oh Hello Mercey River!
Oh Hello Mercey River!

we were told that it would take at least two days to discharge. So we hope that it meant two evenings two right? Two evenings where we could split the crew and take a turn to go to Liverpool for the evening and get a picture with the famous statues of the Beatles!

well… sounded good. Also because we moored on Tuesday afternoon and they started around the coffee break, and they would not be working late: only 20:00 ship’s time; so for sure, we thought it would take two days.

Passing the small locks in front of Liverpool
Passing the small locks in front of Liverpool
The view over Liverpool from the vessel: the closest I have ever been!
The view over Liverpool from the vessel: the closest I have ever been!

The first part of the crew went ashore: engineer, ABs and apprentice. I thought I’d let them go together, being guys, they would not probably want to see the same things as me…. To be honest I love sightseeing, so just walking in town, getting the atmosphere of the city in my head, walking the streets and taking pictures of the architecture: buildings, houses, streets, windows and doors, colours. It is probably some leftovers from my architecture years. I guess that will never leave me as I will forever be an architect even if I do not practice. My vision of tourism and cities are probably transformed since my studies. I do like to go for a drink too of course, but it is never really my main goal when I have the chance to go ashore.

As I was closing hatches that first evening, I thought to myself that they had been working quite fast already. I somehow had the feeling that they would complete the next day with this speed. But I did not want to worry or to tell myself I should have gone to town too. I was secretly keeping my fingers closed that we would still be there the following night.

Ready to discharge in Liverpool
Ready to discharge in Liverpool
Always ready to do a real Man Over Board drill when we can! Perfect conditions!
Always ready to do a real Man Over Board drill when we can! Perfect conditions!

The next morning, hatches opened of course, and it all went so fast that by lunchtime I knew we were going to complete before the end of the day and that Pilots would come onboard at high tide to go outbound with the flow. I somehow just knew it! I knew that I had missed my chance there and I was actually quite sad and angry about it. Maybe because in the past I have always put the crew and the guests ahead of what I wanted, being so faithful to the ship and to work, that now I tend to try to grab any opportunity, also for myself and not always being the person saying yes all the time. So I was a bit upset with myself for being that person again giving the chance to others before myself. 

Do you know what happens in such situations? I have to work hard on my mind to tell my brains that we could have been at sea, and I would not have seen Liverpool either, we could have been in another harbour, it could have been covid times with no shore leave, it could have been a 24h working harbour and yes exactly, you get it. I am here for the ship, not on vacation. And I had a nice early evening onboard watching a movie with the captain and one or two beers, which is also rare as we are a dry ship. We only allow ourselves a beer when there is no more cargo operation and no activity during the night and alongside. And it never goes wild. I guess we are quite a reasonable crew right?

So there we were preparing for departure in the middle of the night. I will directly let you know. It is never handy to depart at such hours. Indeed the whole crew is awake then; and if not on deck it is the noise from the engine room and variations are the usage of the engine for the manoeuvres that wake you up. Besides, there is a long part that is done on the river with the pilots where the captain also needs to be present so there is a little bit of a change in schedules. On longer trips, it is not a problem because, over the following days, it is all settled up again; but for short days it is never really so nice as it totally breaks our routines.

This time, we were heading to Scotland, to Loch Aline to load some sand and we would be back to Runcorn just a couple of hours sailing further on the Mercey River, passing Liverpool.

Sailing towards Scotland!
Sailing towards Scotland!

It was very nice to sail up to Scotland. It reminded me of my time onboard the tall ships because we had quite some sailing in this area. Especially a cruise in company ( sailing time between two race ports) which gave us lots of time to hop in and out of the smallest little harbours all the way up to Lerwick! This time as we were sailing up North I knew from my Instagram feed that the tall ship Thalassa from the Netherlands was also sailing in the area! and I actually saw them on the AIS! but not in reel. My colleague early morning saw them as they were sailing by a great castle and apparently the view was really amazing! Lucky him!

Loch Aline was a very cute little lock. The pier, which was more of a jetty, was short. Our size vessel was probably just at the maximal tolerance for this kind of jetty; the belt could also barely reach our outboard side of the vessel. But it did not really matter as long as we could load properly. There was a big tide there and the difficulty of this jetty is that you can only load when the tide is running in so that as you load, the vessel’s draft gets deeper, but more water would come under the keel which would compensate. If you did not pay enough attention or continued too late after High water, you had a big big chance of running aground then!

The loading rate was also very fast: around 600 tons an hour, so you could expect to complete within 5-6 hours of cargo operations if all went well. Well…. we had a bit of a nervous half an hour there as we had to suspend the loading due to a problem with the belt, but it was fixed fast enough and we could finish in time safely. Very often the problems in loading come from shore: the belts, the trucks, and the crane…. I mean it can happen and it is most of the time not a problem; but sometimes, if you have sensitive cargo, or tidal constraints well, you better pay attention to take the right measures if necessary and fast!

The sand we were loading was really white like beach sand in the tropics! It was beautiful. It was quartz sand, so I googled it to check what it was used for. I thought maybe glass, and I was right!

After loading you proceeded during the night towards the next port of call which was Runcorm, as I mentioned, just a little further from Liverpool. The wind was picking up a bit and we passed through a beautiful area called the great race then the sound of Jura. In the Great Race, the currents pushed us all the way up to 17 knots! it was crazy! The captain stayed a little longer on the bridge with me to pass that area. I guess he wanted to make sure that we would not hit the rocks right? Once passed, the sound of Jura was a blessing: calm, quiet, and beautiful. Just a pity it was by night. I could imagine green mountains with nothing around them as there were almost no lights surrounding us. Just nature.

In less than 24 hours we were back in Liverpool Bay, waiting for the pilot to board the vessel 3 hours prior to high water.

We arrived at Runcorn on Sunday morning very early and discharged the sand we had.

Not all harbours only work during weekdays. even in the UK. I guess it depends on the cargo we have too. For sand, it seems that it is 7 days out of 7. Oh well. and as it is not rain sensitive either, it is very easy: just open all hatches and let them discharge according to your plan.

Going grocery shopping with the cook in Runcorn, UK
Going grocery shopping with the cook in Runcorn, UK

The cook and I went for groceries that afternoon; so I must say I almost did not see the cargo coming out of the hold!

The grocery shopping in itself did not take long… probably just less than 2 hours. yes yes, it ends up with three full carts! but we had to somehow wait for the taxi for over 1 hour after that! The very nice thing actually was that he did not have any receipt to give me for the accounts of the ship, he made it free for us adding that it was not normal we had to wait so long for a cab. I am glad that there are still some nice people in town right?

This is how we spent our week in British and Scottish waters. Our next cargo was not ready yet in Rayness Jetty so we would head back to Loch Aline that night again for another round of Sand, but this time to Ellesmere Port, a bit closer to Liverpool.

And off we were on the run again!

See you next week!

Sophie xxx

7th term, week 2 🤩

7th term, week 2 🤩

30th of May to 5th of June 2022

Hello, my friends! there we are!! Still sailing towards the sun! except that, for the moment there is not so much sun…. We are still along the Dutch coast… That is probably the reason, right? haha

Did I tell you I brought my sextant on board? Yes, I did! It is funny I have actually never really practised with a sextant. I think I always wanted to have one but was never really confident enough to get myself one! Then I have a friend who sells second-hand sextants and I jumped on the occasion! This is the first time I have one onboard ad that I have the time to practice playing around without having guests or trainees or day trips going around. Do you see what I mean? great! So I also took my books from school…. I honestly had to read them again and try to understand them again! yes indeed…. It has been a while and probably when you have someone teaching you and answering your questions on the spot then it makes it all way easier right? It did not feel the same at all this time. And I kept on thinking about my friends sailing on Wylde Swan who each have a sextant of their own too and sail around the ocean only on the sextant. Then I thought, wait a minute. in school I was also not too bad with those calculations so… I might as well give it a try for fun, right?

So there I was with my school book and playing around with my sextant adjusting the mirrors and practising taking heights. I had to reread a few chapters a few times again to try to understand what I was doing. I was hoping that there would be good moments for me to measure the height at the culmination and before and after and then try to draw my position on paper.

Well, it was actually quite exciting and nice to measure the sun a few times a day. It gives you something to look forward to. Not that I am bored onboard or do not have anything to do of course, but just something different to do.

In a few eye blinks we were sailing past Dover and when I woke up for my watch we could spot the beautiful white cliffs! Every time, they are just an amazing sight! Any land you spot from the sea is an amazing sight anyways….

And just like that, we were sailing towards the French coast and Ouessant. Still in the nice sailing rhythm of finding time to make a short workout and skip for 20 minutes on deck in the afternoon.

I was hoping I would not have to report to Ouessant traffic… Last time Captain H. wanted me to report in French but I hate doing that because I do not know the words really in French. And also, I know, it might seem stupid, but everyone is usually looking at me and I feel like blushing and searching even more for my words. Yes, you get it. ever is nautical for me goes in English and not in any other language! haha. Well eventually in Dutch, that could also do sometimes. English is for me the working language and somehow when people speak another language on the VHF for example, I do listen and understand, but during mooring operations, I can be quite selective in hearing! 😉

I love longer sailings. It is something I actually miss from my previous ships. Of course with tall ships, our speed is less so it takes more time to reach the next harbour right? But also when crossing the Atlantic we have a couple of weeks if not more, at sea without seeing the land. This gives lots of time to be in a routine and to catch up on books, sleep, workouts, on anything actually. The routines are great. The main difference is that nowadays I have internet onboard, which I did not have when I was on the sailing vessels so of course, I had to occupy my time with more things when I was off watch. Now I find myself easily scrolling on social media or binge-watching Netflix and not moving forward with things that are on my task list.

Do you give yourself task lists when you are home or at sea? Well, I do things like sorting all pictures on my phone, sorting the files on my laptop, writing my blogs, and posting the blogs….. The only thing I manage to do when I am onboard is to actually post on my social media! I manage to post every day a story or a picture about my life at sea but when I am at home there is no way I can find or make time for that!! somehow it just doesn’t work and I forget about it. Anyways.

Checking the vessel while sailing in the Biscay!
Checking the vessel while sailing in the Biscay!

I made a few pictures ahead to use for the next few days so that I always have something ready. Then I just need to find a caption and take time to post. Yes, it does actually take time to write the caption and post it. maybe I should also prepare that ahead…. and just have to copy and paste.

Ok so enough talking about social media. back to the ship’s life and long days at sea. During this short bit of ocean crossing, I was really hoping to see some wildlife: dolphins and whales…. but the only thing I saw was kelp. yep. algae. You might find it strange but it is one thing I notice, to be honest! coming out from the Baltic Sea it is strange to see algae again! And I like it! I am no expert though in which type of algae and if it is normal to see these ones so high up or not. When I was on Europa I remember the guide we had with us onboard were marine biologists and they specialized in such things. 

It is always time for a good swim call according to Sophie!
It is always time for a good swim call according to Sophie!

In the Biscay, we stopped the vessel for a swim call! I love swimming in the sea and I find it even greater to swim in the ocean when there is nothing around and where the closest sea is 5000m under your feet!! I find it so exciting! it gives a feeling of freedom. Before I was always worried that sharks would come around and think I am a seal and just eat me alive…. Now I think that the Biscay is probably way too cold for sharks… right? I would never swim near ascension island for example. It is full of sharks there. And in warmer waters, I would always stick closer o the ship thinking that in case something happened then I would be able to put my whole body on the hull and pretend I am part of the ship and therefore way bigger than the shark so he would not be interested in eating me. I bet you are now thinking I watched too many horror movies right?

That is one of the highlights I always have in the Biscay: double bonus when it is sunny and no swell and we get to swim if we are not in a hurry.

When arriving in Ferrol was also very nice! It was a few days we were at sea only but it seemed like an exciting adventure and when preparing the pilot ladder the crew was all happy on deck smiling and jumping around as if we were finally arriving at a safe space after dreadfully long days on the ocean. Or maybe it was just the pretty surroundings like in a fairy tail: a natural channel, castles and forts protecting the entrance to the river… Or again, it could be that we were arriving on a Saturday morning and that they were only going to discharge on Monday morning so we were all looking ahead to a free and calm weekend in Spain. This meant shore leave in the city and a long walk up the surrounding hills.

MV Ruyter alongside in Ferrol, Spain
MV Ruyter alongside in Ferrol, Spain
a Chief officer happy to by alongside in Spain!
a Chief officer happy to by alongside in Spain!

I must admit it was really nice to be back in the sunshine. We were lucky enough to go in that early but as per harbour authorities, we were not allowed to do any commercial activity or maintenance for the vessel when alongside or they would charge us the whole weekend fee. so yep. Win-win for us, not really for the ship right? But sometimes it is nice to just follow the flow… and enjoy a relaxing weekend. The next few days will be busy, better charge our batteries!

See you next week! 🙂

Sophietje